Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I've not logged in for so long I'm almost afraid to try...

Why?

Honestly for just flying around shooting spaceships, doing the story missions, this game isn't all that complicated. It's really only as complicated as you make it out to be.

I know. I'm mostly afraid of the massive update that I'm gonna be forced to download if I login My interests mostly just have changed is the main thing.

Playing regularly doesn't mitigate that- more often than not the weekly maintenance reults in updates hundreds MBs in size

[FaxModem1]

Well, using the Zen I had saved up, and some Christmas cash, I bought myself a Jupiter. She was quite handy in fighting off and getting rid of the Iconians.

I've done all the Mirror Universe missions, and, for the first time, am now completely caught up with the game. All I really have left is tanking my Jupiter to even more ridiculous levels, and finishing off the Reputation trees for the factions that require huge PVE events.

Storywise: I'm really glad Denise Crosby was hired for this game. Having Sela as the sort of ally/sort of enemy like Dukat is where she should have evolved to in TNG, but she makes a rather entertaining figure to have in the story missions.

[Lord Revan]

some of my fleet mates said the escorts you get with Jupiter are rather meh overall, especially they're broken in such a way that 99% of the time they don't work at all but when they work they're really good.

Personally I should get the breen dreadnaught once the servers come back today.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The set you get for Stormbound is ideal for Sci ships and thus perfect for the Jupiter. I'll have to work on a build for the new Dreadnought, I've got 7 characters to do this with. With the new year I'm toying with the idea of whipping up a new one- thinking a Vulcan Sci officer. Of course I'm more than a little wary about doing so because I know how much work it is to develop a toon.

I'm in the process of overhauling my away team layout, it's something I've been meaning to do for ages, as well as finding a use for all the bridge officer candidates I have clogging up my inventory

[Lord Revan]

I've tried using the Breed dread a bit now it's a fun ship though a bit more flimsy then the Samsaar (but then a bog tac cube is probably more flimsy then the Samsaar that thing is bloody indestructble).

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I've tried using the Breed dread a bit now it's a fun ship though a bit more flimsy then the Samsaar (but then a bog tac cube is probably more flimsy then the Samsaar that thing is bloody indestructble).

It's the Kobali set that makes the difference with that ship. I just compared the stats for the two- the Breen ship actually has a slightly stronger hull than the Kobali one. Their shield and impulse modifiers, turn rate and console slots are identical. The boff slots are largely identical too, the only difference is the Breen has a universal vs eng lt. cdr, and the Breen ship can mount cannons of course.

It used to be the case that Dual Heavy Cannons were the damage kings, now beams seem to have the upper hand. I took the opportunity of the R&D weekend to craft and upgrade quite a few bits of space gear. Hopefully it'll make a difference when it's all done

[Lord Revan]

I've tried using the Breed dread a bit now it's a fun ship though a bit more flimsy then the Samsaar (but then a bog tac cube is probably more flimsy then the Samsaar that thing is bloody indestructble).

It's the Kobali set that makes the difference with that ship. I just compared the stats for the two- the Breen ship actually has a slightly stronger hull than the Kobali one. Their shield and impulse modifiers, turn rate and console slots are identical. The boff slots are largely identical too, the only difference is the Breen has a universal vs eng lt. cdr, and the Breen ship can mount cannons of course.

It used to be the case that Dual Heavy Cannons were the damage kings, now beams seem to have the upper hand. I took the opportunity of the R&D weekend to craft and upgrade quite a few bits of space gear. Hopefully it'll make a difference when it's all done

I wasn't using the Kobali set on the Samsaar (I was using the Sol Set) why the Breen ship feels more flimsy might a combo of not having full mastery yet and having more health so the damage even relatively speaking same looks more.

That said I wonder if there's gonna be a special event for Star Trek aniversery this year and if so what will it be.

[Alferd Packer]

During the ship sale I picked up one of the pilot escorts, the Mercury. After lumbering around cruisers for the last two years, I have fallen back in love with escorts again. It's just so zippy and delightful! And my most powerful ship to date. If I'm Jimmy Tryhard in ISA I can clock 37-40K DPS with my current loadout, but more regularly have been doing 32-35K. If I min-max this thing a bit more, I bet I can break 45K.

Only downside is that it is a little squishy in solo work.

[Elheru Aran]

Escorts are just generally squishy, not much way around that. That's the balance-- you get speed, moves, and a certain amount of punch, but you're squishy. If you want to tank, pay to win or get a cruiser.

[Lord Revan]

tbh there's not a single "tanky" escort no matter how much you pay for the ship, there's some no tactical leaning cruisers granted but they're still cruisers not escorts.

[Highlord Laan]

Ehhh. I've found the Hestia/Hephestus is pretty tough for it's weight. Built right, it's more like a light cruiser than an escort.

[Lord Revan]

sure there's some escorts that are tougher then others just like there's so cruisers that seem to be made of paper (Klingon cruisers seem to be the worse here), but I've not noticed a clear trend of "pay to win" mentality.

[FaxModem1]

Okay, I feel silly here, but how do I activate my escort pets for my Jupiter? I can activate my fighters just fine, and they turn the tide rather quickly, but I can't seem to find the escorts that I'm supposed to be able to deploy if needed. Any ideas?

[Elheru Aran]

Okay, I feel silly here, but how do I activate my escort pets for my Jupiter? I can activate my fighters just fine, and they turn the tide rather quickly, but I can't seem to find the escorts that I'm supposed to be able to deploy if needed. Any ideas?

Check your interface editor. It should show you any buttons that you may not have room for on your current interface, IIRC.

[RogueIce]

Dumb question but: you do have the escorts equipped, right? Because as default, it's only equipped with the fighters. You have to get the Escorts separately.

[FaxModem1]

Dumb question but: you do have the escorts equipped, right? Because as default, it's only equipped with the fighters. You have to get the Escorts separately.

Well, now I feel like an idiot. I thought it was something that came standard.

[Elheru Aran]

...or that. Hey don't look at me, the only time I've ever done a ship with the attached Escort was when I played with the Odyssey on one of the anniversary events

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Dumb question but: you do have the escorts equipped, right? Because as default, it's only equipped with the fighters. You have to get the Escorts separately.

Well, now I feel like an idiot. I thought it was something that came standard.

Yeah, a bit of a sting in the tail- on the other hand it did give my tac captain the opportunity to use the elite scorpion fighters I'd bought ages ago. Since they were bound to her I couldn't simply transfer them.

The strongest escort in the game that I'm aware of is the (Lockbox) Vaadwaur Manasa Assault Escort. The stats look pretty awesome- but there's no way in hell I'm going to buy one for each of my 7 characters! If I bought one and it unlocked it for all my toons (like with event reward ships), it would be a different story.

What I've noticed about the Arbiter bundle- the main selling point for the Fed ship is the ability to mount cannons, which sets it apart from the rest. The KDF and Rom counterparts lack this distinction, since all their ships can mount them anyway. So unless the starship mastery trait is really awesome it just looks like money for old rope.

I just picked up the new Hestia before the sale ended- as I've always loved the Prometheus it's a ship I've wanted for years. Time will tell how it measures up.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sigh... every time I walk away from this game for a while, I get to enjoy the usual slow, massive patch when I come back. The latest one seemed particularly bad.

I'll be heading back to the Bajor area for the first time in a while, I think. I have unfinished business out that way.

I've also been thinking about getting into player vs. player combat more. I know full well their are people much better at it than me, but I've thus far mostly focussed on the single player stuff and want to branch out.

Any recommendations I haven't already heard?

[RogueIce]

Enjoy getting ganked in PvP, especially if you're only coming back after a long absence. You need a power build or you might as well not bother.

[TheFeniX]

What is STO PvP like now? The instanced stuff was always boring, especially the ground stuff, but the open space PvP in the Kerrat system was aces and more games should have PVP like it. There were PvE objectives to complete, which meant there were plenty of players and bots to destroy while they tried to farm rare gear in their level range.

When I quit, the only (and I mean only) way my Cruiser was going down was to an escort with everything front-loaded opening up and me just not paying attention. Otherwise, I'd see a load of buffs being stacked and one Sub-nucleonic beam ended the fight before it ever started. They either cut and ran or died horribly.

If I ran into another cruiser with my build, we both just shot at each other for ages until one got bored and moved off.

[RogueIce]

What is STO PvP like now? The instanced stuff was always boring, especially the ground stuff, but the open space PvP in the Kerrat system was aces and more games should have PVP like it. There were PvE objectives to complete, which meant there were plenty of players and bots to destroy while they tried to farm rare gear in their level range.

When I quit, the only (and I mean only) way my Cruiser was going down was to an escort with everything front-loaded opening up and me just not paying attention. Otherwise, I'd see a load of buffs being stacked and one Sub-nucleonic beam ended the fight before it ever started. They either cut and ran or died horribly.

If I ran into another cruiser with my build, we both just shot at each other for ages until one got bored and moved off.

Apparently, Science Ships can be quite deadly. Reddit thread here where they describe what they did and what builds they had.

[Alferd Packer]

Any recommendations I haven't already heard?

Honestly? You probably won't kill a single ship. PvP builds are extremely hard to defend against unless you have your own PvP build, and those require specialized gear and traiting that emphasize spike damage and crippling debuffs. The exception to this would be if you're not yet at the level cap and playing against similarly geared opponents. In that case, just have fun--until, of course, some knobhead with a PvP build comes along and oneshots each member of your team.

[TheFeniX]

Apparently, Science Ships can be quite deadly. Reddit thread here where they describe what they did and what builds they had.

I could do something equivalent to that back in my hey-day, but with torp volleys. Hell, against a stationary ship, a whole lot of people could. TTKs could be hilariously low in STO, but one thing I liked is that certain builds could drag fights out into the long-run and still be capable of putting out hurt when the opportunity presented itself.

Hell, I remember when Sub-Nucleonic Beam + Viral Matrix made BoPs stupidly overpowered, other ships just overpowered. It was basically a 15 second stun with no counter and the cooldown was also stupid low. Even after the stun wore off, SNB added 45 seconds to ALL your cooldowns. If you saw another science ship coming at you, you could do the math and buff stack to try and ride it out, but BoP cloak gave you an incredibly small window to see this purple dot coming at you.

I was more along the lines of what do PvPers actually do now? Is it the same 2 open-world PvP zones and a few instanced PvP maps? Are the klinks still kept in their little hole? Just wondering what there would be to do. Do people still farm Kerrat? Are there still epic engagements and explosions?

[Alferd Packer]

No, Ker'rat has all but been removed from the game. You can still go there, but no one shows up because you can't farm dil there anymore. Similarly, PvP queues are generally pretty slow. There are a few dedicated PvP groups, but they just tend to play each other.